Hochul nixes MTA’s planned fare hikes, service cuts thanks to infrastructure package

Subway Fare Increase ‘Off the Table’ Thanks to Infrastructure Bill

Those signing the letter include representatives of the Citizens Budget Commission, the League of Women Voters of New York State, the New York Public Interest Research Group, Common Cause/New York, Reinvent Albany, the labor-backed Stronger Economy for All Coalition and Citizens Union.

New York's revenue collections halfway through the fiscal year continue to exceed budget projections, according to the Citizens Budget Commission's Patrick Orecki, who breaks down the latest financial update from the Hochul administration.

No honeymoon for New York's new mayor as Adams faces a host of issues

In his own words: Mayor-elect targets $4B budget gap

Here’s the slew of crises Bill de Blasio is leaving behind for Eric Adams

Andrew Rein, president of the watchdog Citizens Budget Commission, called on Adams to “manage the hell out of city government,” with priority in core areas “education, safety, health, sanitation and the New York City Housing Authority.

“He has to manage performance and get the most out of his administration, through the commissioners and down through the agencies,” Rein said.

Managing wisely, he said, includes making the best use of the federal aid.

“The city needs to spread it out to provide time to restructure, focus it on the best uses and track and manage it with data to first identify what the expected results should be and then monitor and manage to get them.”

Adams will likely need to find new funding sources to help the city balance its budget once federal Covid relief aid stops flowing.

Over the next two years, the city’s roughly 100 labor contracts are set to expire, according to Ana Champeny, director of city studies for the Citizens Budget Commission. The contract for District Council 37, with 150,000 municipal workers, expired in May. DC 37 has been one of Adams’s staunchest supporters and negotiations will help set the tone for the rest of the contracts. The United Federation of Teachers contract is set to run out in September 2022.

In recent years, the city has spent roughly $1.6 billion on overtime pay annually, according to Ana Champeny, director of research at Citizens Budget Commission, a non-profit organization that analyzes New York City's finances and spending.

"Overtime in general is a big expense," she told CBS MoneyWatch.

If a significant number of firefighters continue to resist the vaccine, overtime pay are likely to climb.

"The questions are, how many folks are out, how many are out for an extended period of time and in what roles are they," Champeny said. "In the case of the Fire Department, they need to staff posts with four to five firefighters at an engine company plus a supervisor, and that's different from office jobs where every time someone is out you, don't necessarily bring in another body. The impact will depend on these individual's persistence."

More than 2,000 New York City firefighters out sick as vaccine mandate takes effect

Eric Adams wins NYC mayor's race; Lander to become next comptroller